I strongly agree that classmates are more influential to a child's success in school than parents. This I support with the following reasons.

A child spends so much time with his classmates in school. They study together, play together, and write exams together. Psychologists agree that during their first years in school, children are more influenced by their companies during their emotional and mental growth. As a result, classmates are whom a kid contact most in school and will therefore have much impact on his achievements in school.

In addition, a child has nothing to hide with his classmates in terms of academic performance. For instance, a child who does a bad job in math exam will be revealed on his grades; a child who wins the first prize in oral debate contest will be rewarded before the whole group of students. So his classmates know both his good and bad sides of his performance in school. However, a child will conceal something to his parents while describing his conduct in school--often limit in those good points. From this, we can easily conclude that only those who understand more about a child can exert more influence on him.

Finally, classmates are of similar age with a child. They share so much interest in common. So a child is more sentimentally attracted by his classmates’ activities. If he is in a group of children who are interested in innovations, he will more likely to think of inventing something all day. So classmates are very helpful in his success in school.

From the above discussed, I agree that classmates will influence a child more in his school success because they have more time together, they understand him better than his parents, and they have so much common interest together.